For pilots of commercial aircraft, knowledge of weather data, in particular knowledge regarding hazardous weather along their planned route, is critical for safe operation of an aircraft. Presently, weather radar and other sensors equipped onboard the aircraft are utilized to gather weather data for the flight path ahead.
In recent years, crowd sourced data solutions have been proposed to enhance transportation efficiency and safety. In particular, information from various vehicles may be uploaded and downloaded and thus widely shared, increasing the amount and diversity of data available to the operators of vehicles. Such a system also benefits from the fact that localized information provided by vehicle sensors can be more accurate than information or data sensed at a centralized location. One problem with the crowd sourced data concept, however, is the potential additional heavy burden placed on communication datalinks. Commercial aircraft operations, in particular, are experiencing evolving and increasing utilization of air-ground datalinks for air traffic control, airline operations specific applications, and in-flight data services for passengers. Introduction of uploads and downloads of detailed crowd sourced information will only add to the burden of the wireless networks utilized by aircraft and other vehicles.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for alternate systems and method for crowd sourced information collection.